A review by bookaquarius
Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A

4.0

I read Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee and quite enjoyed it. We follow Ester and her roc (giant-sized hunting bird) named Zahra as Ester learns how to care for, handle, and hunt with this huge dangerous animal. The goal for roc handlers is to kill manticores, which are also big scary flying creatures known to kill humans in gruesome attacks such as the one that killed most of Ester’s family. This book focuses on Ester’s passion for her calling and how it helped her find purpose in the world and eventually to let go of imagining these creatures as monsters with specific motivations and see them simply as animals doing what they instinctually know to do. I liked that aspect because it’s very much my taste when characters can think critically and evolve rather than experience a bad thing and never be able to see reason again. I liked that the creatures were not really companions to the humans in the sense that there was no reciprocal loyalty. They were wild and could survive without the humans and sometimes they left. Ester’s devotion to her training and her roc feels reverent at times, and her awe at the creature she works with is palpable. The pain of needing something that does not need you back the same way, and knowing you’ll have to let go, was a really interesting theme to explore in this short novella. The plot was focused on Ester’s learning journey, her emotional development as she learns to care for more than just her work with rocs, and of course on seeing what the rocs do in action. I’m personally a bit tired of that One Plot™️ that keeps getting run in to the ground in so many fantasy books over the last couple years so even though the scope of this story was small, I felt it was very unique and a refreshing way to experience a new world.